Don Imus is Toast

(See here) in an Associated Press piece that appears on the MSNBC website that reports on radio and TV personality Don Imus being canned.

First let me state that Don Imus's description of the Rutgers' Women's Basketball Team as "nappy-headed hos" is wrong. It is language that I would never use in private let alone on the airwaves.

However, I sense a little bit of a double standard being used against Don Imus. Outrage over the use of the language? Why, we'll hold protests? Well where are the protests outside record companies that distribute the CD's of young, black, male rap stars that use similar and even more offensive language in their "music" to describe black women? Now that Al Sharpton has succeeded in getting Don Imus off the air waves, perhaps he can take his troupe of protesters over to the record company offices and protest there until rap stars, too, clean up their act. Or will young black rap stars be given a free pass apparently only because they are black?

I rarely listened to the Don Imus radio show. Occasionally I might listen in during his interviews of politicians, because these interviews often were really great. However I found it difficult to stomach the banter of his show during the long periods before and after the interviews, so I was not a regular listener. But if you could time your listening (or watching on MSNBC TV) to the interviews, normally these were worth your attention. For example, it was during a Don Imus interview with Senator Joseph Biden that I decided I would never, ever, vote for Senator Biden for President. It was during the interview that Senator Biden announced that the reason he had voted for the resolution authorizing President Bush to use force in Iraq was because he was trying to prevent a war! Don Imus, with his irreverent style of conducting interviews, had a way of getting politicians to let their hair down and catching them off guard.

I feel the firing of Don Imus was an over reaction. Please note that apparently I am not alone in feeling this way. (See here) an Indychannel piece that reports:

Rutgers' women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer announced Friday that the team has accepted the apology of fired radio host Don Imus.

Now, let me point out that it was the Rutgers' women's team that were the object of the offensive language. It was they who were offended. Don Imus met with the entire team to apologize and they accepted the apology. They chose their coach, C. Vivian Stringer as their spokesperson, not Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson.

The Indychannel piece reported Coach Stringer stated:

At no time did the Rutgers womens' team call for his job.

Now let me beat this point to death. The Rutgers' women's team were the ones offended. They personally met with Don Imus so that he could apologize to them. They accepted his apology and they did not seek to have him fired.

I think Don Imus should be given his job back. If the ones offended can find the room in their hearts (they should be commended for having such large hearts - they were justified in being offended) to forgive him, then I think society should follow their example and forgive him as well.

And if this does not happen (Don Imus is not given his job back) I demand that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson stop being hypocrites; that they protest, demonstrate and do whatever is necessary to get the record companies to stop publishing and distributing the filth of rap stars that contains language that they also should be describing as offensive.